Deck the Halls
by iristigerlily
Summary: The Doctor is acting strange, Rose is miffed and there's a big surprise in store...A Christmas prezzie to all Australians who won't get TCI sad


For (lj user) smeggysworld, who gave me the idea and a few lines.

* * *

"Oh bloody hell!"

Rose Tyler swore as the bathroom was suddenly plunged into darkness. Sitting in the bathtub, she began to feel cold as the heat from the lights faded.  
She got out of the bath with a shiver and wrapped a towel around her before fumbling to find her clothes in the darkness.

Ten minutes later, she was dressed and dry, and wandering the halls of the TARDIS. It was easy enough to get lost anyway, let alone when she kept bumping into walls and such because she couldn't see a thing.

Eventually, she made her way to the console room. It was even darker than the rest of the TARDIS because of it's vast size. She could hear a banging from up above somewhere and she assumed it was the Doctor tinkering with something.

"Doctor?" she asked, peering upwards.

There came a cry of something in another language - possibly his own native one - and the sound of a hammer being dropped to the ground.  
"Rose?" came the nervous Northern voice. "What are you doing here?"  
"The lights went out. I came to see what happened." she said, looking upwards, trying to see the Doctor and what he was doing.  
"Oh. Umm. I blew a fuse."  
"You can do that?"  
"Sure." he slid down the ladder. "She isn't too happy about it, though, so I'll have to fix her pronto."  
"Want any help?" Rose asked as he walked over to her. She could just make out in the darkness that he had removed his jacket and rolled up his jumper sleeves to his elbows.  
"Ah, no. I'll be right. There are some candles in the storeroom if you want. And there's that glow-in-the-dark outfit I got from Nedria in the wardrobe room." he muttered, trailing off.

Rose took the hint and with an "okay" she left him to his work. She felt slightly hurt that the Doctor didn't want her help. She knew she didn't know how to pilot the TARDIS or anything, but she knew the basics of handing tools over and twisting nobs and pulling levers he told her to, didn't she?

Her room was quite close to the console room and she found it easily. She pulled a torch from her dressing table and wandered the halls of the TARDIS again, steering clear of the console room.

She made her way to the library and pulled the first book she saw from the shelf. _The Time Machine._ Typical. She opened the front cover and saw a signature.  
_"Doctor,  
thanks for the amazing trip.  
Love, Herbert."_

She smiled and wandered over to the couch in front of the fire. On her way, she passed a desk with an open book on it. She flipped it over and looked at the cover. _Human Celebrations and Customs_. It was dusty and old. Looked like the Doctor hadn't looked at it in 800 years.

With a shrug, she sat down on the couch and started to read.

* * *

"Rose?"  
Rose jumped at the sound of the Doctor's voice disturbing the silence in the library.  
"What is it?" she asked, sitting up from her lazy position.  
"Do we have any extension cords?"  
She blinked. "Ah. I don't know. I don't think so."

He muttered something under her breath that was possibly another swear word. "Okay. Thanks." he said and walked away.

Rose shook her head in disbelief.

* * *

Having finished half the book in the six hours and eaten all the scaliwag biscuits in the kitchen, Rose decided to take a nap. She was exhausted even though she had done nothing all day.

As she opened the door to her room, she heard an annoyed voice from the console room. "Dammit, why the hell are they _blinking_?"  
She decided not to wonder about it, and closed her door.

She crossed over to her desk and looked at her diary. There was a date circled and she looked at it sadly. He had forgotten.  
She supposed she couldn't expect him to remember everything, but just one day might have been nice. No, he was too busy tinkering with his broken TARDIS.

She went and lay down on her bed, not bothering to change and within a minute, she had fallen asleep.

* * *

The Doctor stood back and admired his handywork. Very good, if he did say so himself. Rose would be thrilled.  
_Rose..._ he bit his lip and wondered if she had been hurt by the way he had brushed her off. She had certainly seemed so. He made a silent promise to make it up to her by giving her a holiday tomorrow.

As he passed her door on the way to the study, he peered inside her room. She was asleep on top of the bedsheets with her clothes on. On her bedside was a book. He walked in silently and picked it up. He smiled as he remembered his second trip to Karfel. One of the pages was folded over, bookmarking her place. With a mental sigh he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and placed it as a bookmark, smoothing out the crease in the book. _Humans..._

With that, he left the book on the desk and went to the study to have a read himself until she woke up.

* * *

Rose awoke with a sigh. She looked over at her clock. Seven pm. The lights were on again. Hopefully the Doctor would be in a better mood now. She brushed the tangles out of her hair and opened her door...  
"Doctor!" He was standing right in front of her door, as if waiting for her.  
"Oh, hi Rose!" she said cheerfully.  
"What are you so happy about?" she muttered.  
"It's a great day today." he smiled at her.  
"What's so great about it?" she asked darkly.

He took her hand in his and led her down the passageway.  
"Rose, close your eyes." he told her, smiling.  
She did so.  
She heard the sound of a door creaking open and he led her inside the room.  
"Where are we?" she asked, but the echo told her immediately. The console room.

"Open your eyes." came a whisper next to her ear.

When she looked up, she gasped in wonder. The console room was filled with Christmas lights. The central column was covered in tinsel and decorations hung everywhere. A Christmas tree stood to one side, presents piled underneath.

"There's no roof to land on, so I have to give him a key to get in." the Doctor said, waving his hand towards the pile of boxes. "I'll take you to meet him one day. Nice bloke." He turned and smiled at her.

She suddenly lept into his arms, laughing like mad, causing him to spin her around so he wouldn't drop her. "Thank you!" she cried. "It's so perfect." He let her down and she looked up at the vastness of the room again.  
"Well?" he asked.  
"Well, what?" she looked at him.  
"Aren't you going to open your presents?"

She took his hand and pulled him over to the tree. Underneath was a pile of presents, all addressed to her.  
"Doctor... are these..?"  
"All for you." he clarified, grinning like a schoolboy.  
"But I... haven't got anything for you."  
"I don't think that that's rather the spirit of Christmas, do you?" the Doctor said.

Rose picked up the first present and unwrapped it carefully. Inside was a new pair of jeans. Her last pair had been incinerated on Ellistar.  
"Thank you." she said, holding them up to admire them.  
She unwrapped the next. A new hairdryer.  
"Oh," she laughed, "Very appropriate."  
"How was I supposed to know you can't plug it into the intergalactic power plug?" he said indignantly.

By the end of her unwrapping, Rose had almost everything that the Doctor had broken or lost of hers. A new pair of jeans, hairdryer, hairbrush, razor, Crowded House and Queen CD's, MP3 player and purple pen.

She looked up at the Doctor. "Thank you so much for going to all this trouble."  
He just grinned. "S'okay. I knew it was your Christmas soon, so..."  
He trailed off when she lent up and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Thank you." she whispered again.  
"Stop saying that." he smiled, feeling slightly giddy, "I've heard that too many times today from you."  
She rolled her eyes at him.

"Oh! Almost forgot." he said, reaching into his pocket. "Your real prezzie."  
"Doctor!" she said, aghast. "But you've already bought all this..."  
"Nah. That's all replacements. Not presents. Here." he said, holding out a small velvet box. "Merry Christmas."

She opened the box, looked inside and gasped. The bracelet was silver and had scores of little charms and jewels hanging off it.  
"That one," the Doctor explained, pointing, "is when we first met."  
"Green."  
"Emerald." he clarified. "For a fresh start."  
"For who?" she asked, smiling.  
"Both of us." he grinned back. "And that one is for when I showed you the end of the world. And that one..."  
He went through all the gemstones and the colours and what they represented from all their adventures they had shared.  
"And the rose?" she asked, pointing to a charm in the shape of the flower.  
"It's for you." he said, reaching out to stroke her hair. "My beautiful rose." he murmured.

As the TARDIS drifted into the night, the two friends sat for a while, silent and content with each other's company.

* * *


End file.
